The Parks and Recreation star on the surprising role he nearly landed, his character's future, and working with friends Paul Rudd and Jon Hamm

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Thirty-eight-year-old Adam Scott has been acting for nearly 20 years, doing stints on established shows like Party of Five and Boy Meets World, and even landing a role in a Martin Scorsese film (2004's The Aviator). But it wasn't until small roles in comedies like Knocked Up and Step Brothers ("I haven't had a carb since 2004!") that he became something more than a Hollywood That Guy. After nailing the disaffected never-was actor-turned-catering-service-bartender role on the beloved cult hit Party Down, Scott seamlessly moved to the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, where his character, budget manager Ben Wyatt, has become a dependably wry love interest for Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope. We chatted with Scott about his career's evolution, the surprising Parks role he nearly landed, and the underground comedy fraternity that's thriving in Hollywood right now.

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GQ: When you were cast on Parks and Recreation you were still, technically, a member of the Party Down cast. It hadn't been canceled yet. How did you first get cast on Parks and Rec?Adam Scott: I actually auditioned for it before it was even on the air. I really wanted it and didn't get it; I actually kind of blew it, and so I was obviously pretty upset—I really wanted to be a part of it from the beginning. So when the opportunity popped up again a couple years later, I was really excited. I went and had a meeting with [showrunner and co-creator] Mike Schur, and then it all just kind of fell into place from there.

GQ: What part were you reading for initially?Adam Scott: Well, they didn't have any parts yet. I think, I could be wrong about this, but I think they were sort of reading actors just randomly, and then kind of finding people they liked and developing parts around them. And I could be wrong about that, but I just gathered that from interviews with Mike. There was no part. Nick [Offerman] and I were reading the same scenes when we were going in and auditioning. So they were just sort of reading people and seeing what kinds of people interested them.

GQ: Are you saying there's an alternate universe where you are Ron Swanson?Adam Scott:[laughs] Or Nick is Ben Wyatt.

GQ: It could happen. Maybe it will happen some day. How well did you know Mike beforehand?Adam Scott: I didn't at all, I just met him that at that audition. So I didn't really know him at all. But then a couple years later when I went in, we had a meeting when I came in to meet him for this go-round, and we got along really well. He's a really nice guy and we kind of have similar tastes in television and movies and music. You know, we're just kind of like, nerds in our 30s.

GQ: I remember reading about your casting, and the way it was portrayed in the press was, "Oh my God, what's going to happen to Party Down?" Adam Scott: Yeah, you know, the show was about to be cancelled, and they just weren't either going on the record or confirming it, but the writing was on the wall for all of us, simply because they weren't totally confirming it, it made it a little tougher, but it was clear to everyone what was about to happen and so I just kind of jumped at the chance to join up with Parks because I was really a big nerd for the show and for me it was a no-brainer just because it was a show that was already going and really working and it was a huge opportunity and I was excited.

GQ: Did you know Amy Poehler beforehand, and did you have a sense of how Ben was going to be positioned in her character's life?Adam Scott: No, not really. I mean, all Mike had told me about it was the backstory with a teenage mayor, which is such a terrific backstory. I had met Amy once previously at, I think backstage at SNL or at a party or something like a year before then, but didn't know her at all. But I knew Nick because Megan Mullally was on Party Down, so I knew Nick pretty well, and I think had met everyone in the cast here and there, but no, didn't really know anyone that well.

GQ: This season is a tricky one for Ben and Leslie. What exactly is Ben doing in Pawnee if he is not with Leslie?Adam Scott: Well, that's the question. And I think that's an interesting question, that's a question that he starts asking himself and starts going through some things in searching for that answer. And they figure it out in some really hilarious ways, as they always do.

GQ: Ben is portrayed as this nerd, at least in Tom's eyes—Tom is always making fun of him—but your character is like, the best-dressed guy on the show—Adam Scott:[laughs]

—and actually seems pretty cool. Adam Scott: Well, I think one of the funny things about Pawnee is that no matter who it is, any outsider may as well be an alien landing from Neptune. They're just a ridiculous person if they don't just think that Pawnee is the center of the universe. So I think no matter how you dress or talk or how funny you are or whatever, if you're not from there, automatically you're just met with absolute suspicion. Like if you don't think that Li'l Sebastian is the most important being in the universe, there is something wrong with you.

GQ: A few years back there was a trend piece about how you were the sort of brother/gay best friend du jour in movies—Adam Scott: Oh really? I never saw this.

GQ: It was in USA Today. Adam Scott: Oh, right right right right right.

GQ: At the time, you seemed pretty Zen about it. Does it feel like that time in your career is over?Adam Scott: I think I had it cornered for like, three weeks.

GQ: Just enough time to print that newspaper. Adam Scott: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think that one's just because I was in two movies where I was someone's brother, like it was Will Ferrell's brother of course in Step Brothers and then Josh Hartnett's brother in this movie August, and then I was J. Lo's gay best friend in Monster-in-Law, so I think that's where all that came from. I mean, I don't think I was ever typecast as any of those things because I don't think there was ever the time to typecast me in anything because I was just sort of trying to find my way, in a sense.

GQ: You've kind of been pretty aggressive about saying that you're not famous at times, but it does seem like that's changed a lot. Adam Scott: Well, you know, it's weird, because when I think of someone that's famous, you know, I think about—people who are actually famous, their lives are a lot different than mine. Like, I get Parks and Rec fans and Party Down fans coming up and wanting to talk about the shows, which I'm more than happy to do because they're always super friendly, cool people. But people who are actually famous, who are walking around with TMZ following them and stuff, that's a whole different thing, so I would stop short of saying I'm famous and maybe say that I'm well-known among people that like funny, nerdy things.

GQ: One thing that's been cool is that even as you've worked more and done more, you've always made time to pop up on small things as well, like Children's Hospital, or an episode or two of Eastbound & Down; is that something that you're still trying to do, do you still have time to do that sort of thing?Adam Scott: Yeah, one of the things I love about the past few years of doing a lot of this comedy, more comedy stuff is just the whole sort of community, in L.A. at least, of UCB, and there's kind of a comedy community out here that's really supportive, so we all help out with each other's stuff and do each other's shows, and little bits at UCB and stuff like that and it's really, really fun. So yeah, I love just jumping in and doing, like I did NTSF:SD:SUV for my buddy Paul Scheer and he came and did Party Down, and Children's Hospital is, I think, one of the best shows on television, and I got to do that. You know, I love doing all that stuff. And Eastbound, I'm going to get to go do another one of those pretty soon.

GQ: As you've carved out this comedy niche, do you miss doing some of the more serious work you were doing a lot earlier in your career?Adam Scott: Not really, because I feel like the stuff like Party Down and Parks, at least, they both are very grounded shows, you know? They're not insane, taking place in an alternate universe; they're grounded shows with real people on them. And so I feel like, while hilarious, they both have a real sense of reality to them and I get the same satisfaction doing them as I did when I was doing something more serious. So for me, it's far more satisfying because it's with a really fun group of people and we get to play real characters that remind us of real people that we know in our lives and at the same time we get all this great, hilarious writing that we get to play, you know?

GQ: Is that also true for upcoming film, Friends with Kids? Adam Scott: Yeah, Jen Westfeldt wrote the script and directed it and stars in it and just does a phenomenal job, and she really wrote a heartbreaking script that's very funny, but also just really lovely, and I found it really moving. And so yeah, there's a lot of that. You know, you have Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd and [Jon] Hamm and all these hilarious people in it, so there's a lot of funny stuff in it, but it's also quite poignant. It's a really good movie, I'm really proud of it.

GQ: I'm curious about your friend circle with Paul Rudd and John Hamm—it's become kind of a Rat Pack for comedy nerds. Does that seem ridiculous to you?Adam Scott: Yes.

GQ: Is it untrue?Adam Scott: No, not really. But it is ridiculous when you think just a few years ago, we were just kind of sitting in a bar making dick jokes and no one was listening. You know, it's terrific because we get to do fun stuff together now but at the same time, it's the same. We're just, I don't know, I don't really think of it like that. It still feels the same, but I guess we're all just a little busier now.

GQ: Do you guys want to continue to collaborate?Adam Scott: Oh, totally. Absolutely, as much as possible. I love working with friends; it's my favorite thing to do. I've found over the years that that ends up being the best way to spend my time. If I'm going to be away from my family, I'd rather it be working with my friends. So being on Parks and Party Down and doing Friends with Kids, it's really lucky that I get to do it with people that I dearly love.

GQ: Do you write at all, or do you aspire to write?Adam Scott: You know, I actually wrote a Funny or Die short that I also directed, and I'm just kind of finishing editing right now, and it should be up in a few weeks. I don't know if it's going to be any good, but it was really fun to do and I got to do it again with a friend, Ken Marino and Mark Duplass are in it. So it was really a satisfying, fun day to shoot this stupid thing. I think it'll be up in the next month or something, but it was really fun. But I don't know if it qualifies as actually writing because it's 10 pages long, so me calling myself a writer would be a fraud, but I did actually type something into a computer and print it out and hand it to people and then we shot it. But calling myself a writer I think might be a bit of a stretch.

GQ: Would you want to write a feature or a show of some kind?Adam Scott: I don't know, you know, I don't know if I have the attention span or the patience, or the skill. You know, writing is really difficult, and it takes a real patience and a skill. I don't know if I have that. I admire it in others, so much, and I envy it.